


What Goes Shriek In The Night?

by Darcyshire



Series: Nightvale College!AU and Other Prompts [1]
Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Friendship, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-24
Updated: 2015-06-24
Packaged: 2018-04-05 22:20:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,171
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4197114
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darcyshire/pseuds/Darcyshire
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I live next door and I heard you screaming so I came over thinking someone was getting murdered and now we're both trying to get the spider out of your apartment AU" </p><p>College AU. Carlos comes to the rescue but things don't go exactly as planned...</p>
            </blockquote>





	What Goes Shriek In The Night?

Carlos’s plans for the evening included writing his Biochem paper that was due tomorrow, watching Netflix and attempting to do some of the laundry that was currently piling up on his bathroom floor.

It, however, did _not_ included screaming for a good two hours at two in the morning with a (very attractive) man wearing hello kitty pajama pants, wielding a broom and swatting at, what could possibly be, the biggest spider Carlos had ever seen in his entire fucking life.

Yet there he was, clutching a man he had never met as they both stood precariously on the edge of said man’s coffee table in said man’s dorm. He was clutching Carlos’s arm in a bruising grip, teeth clenched in total fear as his eyes found the spider once more.

“When I heard the screaming, I thought you were being brutally murdered,” Carlos said, clutching the man closer, eyes never leaving the spider as it also stared them down, unmoving in the corner of the room next to the TV.

“This is so much _worse._ ”

“Tell me about it,” the man said, voice low and smooth as chocolate.“Honestly, I would prefer a nice homicide to a spider.”

“Well, we can’t just stand here for the rest of our lives.” Carlos said, totally bypassing what the man had just said because _what the fuck_ , no.

“You’re right,” the man agreed. “I guess we’ll just have to burn the entire dorm down instead.”

_“That is not at all what we should do here.”_

They stood there another minute before Carlos made a move, hands tightening on the broomstick. “Alright, I’m going to kill it, but when I hit it, _don’t_ scream, okay?” Carlos said, waiting for the man to nod and loosen his painful grip on Carlos’s arm.

Carlos took a deep breath, climbing down from the coffee table as slowly as possible. The spider was only three feet away, large and hairy, watching Carlos’s every move. Before Carlos got close enough to even swat at it, it scurried away, causing the attractive man to shriek, resulting in Carlos screaming in terror and dropping the broom only to rejoin the man on his coffee table once more, eyes scanning the room for the offending creature once more.

“It crawled under the couch.” The man noted, voice hoarse.

Carlos sighed. “Burning your dorm down seems like a good idea right about now.”

. . .

After another hour and the spider hadn’t shown itself, Carlos and the man (He introduced himself as Cecil Gershwin Palmer, part time radio host, full time cat lover) hunkered down behind the coffee table that Cecil had turned on its side, leaning over the top to watch the couch in case the offending creature made an appearance.

“Maybe we should try to move the couch.” Cecil suggested, pulling his impossibly blonde hair back in a ponytail.

“Cecil, you couldn’t pay me to go near that couch.”

“Alright, well…I’m out of ideas.” He sighed, settling in next to Carlos. “I would like to thank you for my rescue, even if it did result in you trapped in my living room at three in the morning.”

Carlos shook his head, smiling softly. “Don’t mention it. It’s really no trouble at all. I am sorry I’m not of more use. Spiders are literally one of the only things that terrify me.”

“No, no,” Cecil said quickly. “I’m grateful that you’re here. Usually my roommate, Earl, is here to deal with these things, but he’s out with his troupe right now to celebrate a job well done on their last nature walk. No deaths or unexpected mauling’s. That’s quite a feat!”

They sat there for some time talking about their majors and hobbies. Carlos learned that Cecil was a Journalism major and an avid stamp collector while Cecil learned that Carlos could recite the entire periodic table from memory (As well as a whole Spongebob episode, which Cecil thought was ‘neat!’). After another half-an-hour, Carlos felt his eyes grow tired. All thoughts of the paper due in four hours had abandoned him as he drifted off, head rested against a table leg. Cecil followed soon after, head pillowed in his chest and snoring softly     . . . .

_“Holy mother of– !!!”_

Carlos awoke to a broken lamp and loud cursing. A man – Cecil’s roommate, Carlos assumed – stood, clutching his chest as he eyed the now dead spider and ruined lamp. Carlos scrambled to his feet, rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he stretched, muscles screaming in protest after laying in the same cramped position for the past two hours. Cecil got up too, hair a frazzled mess, half his face creased with indents from Carlos’s shirt where he had been lying before.

“You couldn’t have warned me there was a poisonous creature waiting to kill me in our couch?” Earl asked, moving to pick up the broom Carlos had dropped earlier that evening so he could begin sweeping body up. “One text is all it takes, Palmer!” he exclaimed, shaking his head. “And, I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Earl,” Cecil answered before Carlos could even process the man’s question, mind still sluggish from sleep.

“This is Carlos, he came to help me when he heard my screams of terror. He then kept me company for most of the night, mainly because to get to the front door you have to pass the couch and we were both too scared to try and leave. He’s _perfect_.”

Carlos felt his face grow warm at Cecil’s words and he noticed Cecil was red faced too, almost mortified at the fact that he had said that last thing out loud.

Earl chuckled, propping himself up on the broomstick as he eyed Carlos. “I’m Earl Harlan. Thanks for keeping Cecil company. Who knows what might have happened if he had to deal with this alone. He probably would have burned the place down.”

“Uh, yeah,” Carlos said slowly, chuckling weakly. “No problem.” He said, grimacing as he checked his watch. It was well past five in the morning.

“Say, Carlos, would you like to stay for a cup of coffee? I know I won’t be sleeping any time soon.” Cecil looked hopeful, eyes shining. It almost pained Carlos to reject his offer, but he really had to write this paper if he wanted to pass his Biochem class.

“I might need to take a rain check on that, sorry Cecil. I have a paper due in like three hours and I haven’t started it yet. Some other time, maybe?”

“I’ll hold you to that, Carlos” Cecil said warmly before bidding him goodbye, thanking him once more. With that, he departed quickly with a goodbye to Earl, who was then picking up the remnants of the lamp he had smashed in order to kill the spider.

As he shut the door to his dorm, he fell back against it, a soft smile on his face as he rubbed at his eyes. “I’ll hold you to that.” He said softly, smiling to himself.

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was my first work in the fandom and my first work in a long time. If you have any headcanons or prompts you want to share with me, my tumblr is official-enjolras.tumblr.com.


End file.
